SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea, Japan and China will work to increase their cooperation in developing and sharing information related technologies, such as cloud computing and mobile Internet, the Seoul government said Monday.

Such regional cooperation is expected to help boost the countries' joint competitiveness in the global market, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.

"The countries will work to increase exchange of information and joint global marketing of their software companies by joint development and sharing of the latest technology through a Northeast Asian association for the software sector," it said in a press release.

As a first step of forming a regional association, the three countries began a three-day seminar in Japan's Okinawa on Monday, involving some 200 government officials and business representatives.

The three countries "will continuously share operating system software related information, including the latest technical trends and applications, to encourage technological and industrial cooperation in the areas of mobile Internet, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things," an excerpt from a rough draft of the chairman's statement said. The statement is expected to be approved and announced at the end of the three-day meeting on Wednesday.

"Moreover, China, Japan and Korea will further encourage prospective research on technology related to smart cities," it said.